Euronews

North Korea has released video of its leader, Kim Jong-Un, inspecting troops near its border with the South.

The reclusive country has also ended non-aggression pacts with South Korea and threatened the United States with a preemptive nuclear strike.

While many considered this to be nothing more than empty rhetoric from an unstable regime, South Korea gave a stern warning.

“If North Korea attacks South Korea with nuclear power, the Kim Jong-un regime will be extinct from the earth by the will of mankind as well as by South Korea,” said Kim Min-Seok of the South Korean Defence Ministry.

The posturing from the North comes after a unanimous decision at the UN Security Council to impose further sanctions, as North Korea has repeatedly gone ahead with nuclear tests and missile launches with the latest just a month ago.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has called on Beijing to rein in North Korea: “I urge China to use its influence to persuade Pyongyang that sabre-rattling, war rhetoric, provocations and infringements of international law must come to an end.”

He welcomed China’s support for the United Nations sanctions on North Korea, but added: “It is also Beijing’s responsibility to tell the powers in North Korea that with these renewed threats and provocations they have gone too far.”